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The Chugoku Bank

Room 1632, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY, 10170, United States

Overview

Chugoku Bank is a regional bank that provides financial and banking services. The company also provides credit guarantee, advisory, bank remittances, financial instruments brokerage, credit card, asset management services, and investment management. They accept various deposit products, including current, savings, installment time, foreign currency deposits, notice, deposits for offshore accounts, deposits for tax payment, and nonresident yen. It also operates through leasing, banking, and securities segment. Chugoku Bank was founded on December 21, 1930, and is based in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan.

Total investments
1
Lead investments
0
Investments · 12mo
0
Active investors
1

Sector focus

  • Banking
  • Finance
  • Financial Services
Visit website

Investment portfolio

  • Wamazing

    Participated · Series C · Dec 2023

    WAmazing operates a tourism platform (OTA) that centralizes online reservations across five major inbound consumption categories: accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, transportation, and food & beverage. Its product suite includes WAmazing Discover, WAmazing Stay, WAmazing Shopping, WAmazing Transport, WAmazing Play, and WAmazing Snow, and it distributes free SIM cards via machines at 25 Japanese airports to grow membership. The company has three business lines: the OTA business, Regional Tourism DX (launched April 2020) and Inbound Marketing Consulting (launched November 2022). Main service markets are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Southeast Asia, and Australia. WAmazing reported that overall sales in FY2023 were 5.5 times and OTA transaction volume (GMV) 3.8 times those in FY2020, and registered members exceeded 520,000 at the end of October 2023. Regional Tourism DX saw orders in FY2023 rise 1.5 times year-over-year and cumulative sales across the past four fiscal years reached approximately JPY 1.8 billion. The company says growth is accelerating post-pandemic and is recruiting urgently (more than 50 open positions) while seeking capital and strategic partnerships to support further expansion. WAmazing provides a tourism platform service for overseas visitors to Japan, offering OTA reservation services across accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, transportation, and food & beverage via web, app, and WeChat. The company operates three business lines: OTA, Regional Tourism DX (launched April 2020), and Inbound Marketing Consulting (launched November 2022), and offers services such as WAmazing Discover, Stay, Shopping, Transport, Play, Snow, and Insurance. WAmazing reported that OTA GMV in January 2023 was 2.2× January 2020 levels, owned-media monthly users were 3.5× January 2020, and registered members exceeded 400,000 at the end of January 2023. Orders in the Regional Tourism DX business in FY2022 increased 2.3× year-over-year, and cumulative sales for that business over the past three fiscal years reached approximately JPY 1 billion. The company uses free SIM distribution machines at 23 international airports to drive membership growth and has achieved seven consecutive fiscal years of sales and growth since establishment. WAmazing plans to use new capital to recruit talent, secure growth funding, and form capital and business alliances with strategic investors and regional banks to expand inbound business and revitalize local communities.

Team

  • Masato Miyanaga

    President